Chronicle/Kendra Stanley-MillsThe former Al Perri furniture store at 794 Pine is being developed into the Muskegon Center for the Arts by Ron Schaafsma, right, his son, Michael Schaafsma, left, and Michael's wife, Shannon Iversen-Schaafsma, center. Enlarge photo

MUSKEGON — Picture a place where you can paint, sculpt, play music, dance and get a massage without leaving the building.

That is the vision of a local man who is working to transform the old Al Perri Furniture store at the corner of Pine Street and Clay Avenue into a one-stop shopping arts center.

Michael Schaafsma, 31, is leading a group of artists and investors in creating the Muskegon Center for the Arts, which he hopes will be open by fall.

The vision is to turn the three-level, 31,500-square-foot commercial building dating to 1923 into an activity center -- which also will include nutritionists, writers, poets and yoga specialists -- and gathering place for "artists."

The building space would include art galleries for the general public, a framing shop, industrial art studio, classroom space, offices and work space for various tenants. Initial plans, which are now before the city of Muskegon Planning Commission, include a small performance stage on the main level that is surrounded by a cafe/snack bar.

"The arts community is strong in this community," said Schaafsma, a 1995 graduate of Orchard View High School, four-year Navy veteran and former project manager for Nextel's wireless phone operations in West Michigan. "They have no organization or guild to bring them together. That's what we want to do."

Chronicle/Kendra Stanley-MillsThe former Al Perri furniture store at 794 Pine is being developed into the Muskegon Center for the Arts. Enlarge photo

Schaafsma left Nextel in early 2007 at the time of its merger with Sprint and went to work fulltime in a business, Aenias Elemental Design in Grand Haven, he had previously started with his father Ron. The decorative metal, wood and stone home furnishings company has grown to need retail space outside of its industrial art shop at 736 Woodlawn in Grand Haven.

There was no doubt that Aenias' new retail space would be in the redeveloping downtown Muskegon, Schaafsma said.

"Muskegon has everything going on," Schaafsma said. "With the old (Muskegon) mall out, you now see so much stuff going on. I wanted to be involved in that. Downtown Muskegon is coming back."

The Muskegon Center for the Arts is not the first art-themed development, according to Muskegon Main Street Director Dan Rinsema-Sybenga. The ArtWorks apartment complex, art galleries such as Jilly's and institutions such as the Muskegon Museum of Art have established a downtown arts foundation in the past years and for generations, he said.

"The arts are catching on and people want to be around it," Rinsema-Sybenga said. "(Schaafsma) has a really neat concept. ... I think the market is ready for it."

The first search for Aenias' retail space found Schaafsma on the other end of Clay Avenue looking at the former Lee Printing building on the west end of downtown. The former print shop just didn't work out when Schaafsma said he discovered the Box Factory in downtown St. Joseph.

"After I walked in the door, I knew that I wanted to do this," Schaafsma said of his emerging Muskegon Center for the Arts plans. "The potential is to make this a destination a place people want to be."

Schaafsma and his budding group of artist friends and investors came across the Al Perri building, which housed a furniture store that closed in early 2006. The building had also been home to a department store in earlier years.

The Muskegon Center for the Arts has a purchase agreement to buy the building at 794 Pine at an undisclosed price, Schaafsma said. An initial renovation budget of $110,000 does not include a need for a pricey new elevator, which currently is designed only for freight, he said.

With the help of investors and a bank loan, Schaafsma said he hopes to complete the building's purchase in the next two months and work on renovation throughout the summer. Schaafsma goes before the Muskegon Planning Commission on Thursday seeking a special use permit to allow Aenias to perform welding as part of its operations in a business district that does not allow industrial activities.

Schaafsma's development team includes his father Ron, who is a partner in Aenias and a former residential contractor. Other members of the team include real estate investor George Komar of Grand Rapids and Jessica Sheldon of Refraction Design, a graphic arts company.

Along with the investors, Schaafsma said he will seek a conventional bank loan to complete the property purchase and building renovation, he said.

"It's a great idea and sort of like what they have in Whitehall and Grand Haven but not Muskegon," said Brenda Moore, an urban planner who opened Clay Avenue Cellars and The Station Gallery and is assisting Schaafsma. "He is taking the concept where it ought to go. He is very ambitious and has a good vision. Let's just hope the community will support him."

While growing up in Muskegon, Schaafsma said he liked to draw and was planning on art school before he entered the U.S. Navy, where he rose in rank as a data systems technician and supervisor.

"I always loved art since I was little," he said. Besides Aenias, Schaafsma also has established a Web design business called CipherWise LLC he operates out of his Twin Lake home with his brother Sean Fisk.

"I love the design work and all of the creativity," he said.

Schaafsma's wife, Shannon Iversen-Schaafsma, brings the "healing arts" to the art center concept, he said. A 1994 Fruitport High School graduate, she operates a massage therapy business, Embody Balance LLC, out of a Lakeside office.

Initial rental rates for office space will average $6 a month per square foot. Some small spaces will be leased for as little as $98 a month with corner window galleries going for $350 a month. Utilities will be evenly divided on a square-foot basis.

Schaafsma will become general manager of the Muskegon Center for the Arts. Though the center will be a privately-owned, for-profit business, he said it will run much like a non-profit art cooperative.

"The reaction so far has been incredibly supportive," Schaafsma said. "The artists are coming out of the woodwork to support the concept."